Watch out dragons... Here be Aaron!

Aaron Gray and the Dragon War Is now available as a book and ebook.

Aaron is a brat, which is understandable after everything he's been through. He also sees dragons when he hums, which isn't understandable by anyone, ever. He soon gets sucked into the dragons' dangerous war, where his only defences are his embarrassingly magical fingernails, and a fierce, ten-year-old girl.

Wednesday, 16 August 2017

Short Story - Aaron's Expulsion

I mentioned in last week's blog post that I'd like to revisit how exactly Aaron got expelled. Well here it is!

Portia Banks, headteacher at Saint Cuthbert’s Academy, tried to ignore the sound of the beginner violin lessons in the room next door, and instead focussed on the array of musical instruments that Martyn Malone, music teacher, had displayed on the desks. On the middle desk was a tuba, the end of which had a dent in it the size of a small dinner plate.“Does it still play?” Portia asked, tentatively.“It does,” reassured Martyn, “And I think I can hammer out the worse of the dents. The clarinets will need to go for repair though.”Portia looked at the clarinets. She wasn’t a musical expert but she was sure that the bits of metal hanging off the instruments were not meant to be at that angle. Martyn continued. “I can fix the xylophones, and the drum kit just needs some new skins. The main issue though, is the piano.”Portia groaned. “He broke the piano?”“I’m afraid so. I had the lid open, because, well, it looks cooler, but it meant when the tuba hit the piano strings, things broke.” Martyn gestured to the piano and Portia looked inside. There were a number of snapped strings and significant scratches in the woodwork. The piano lid was cracked, Portia guessed it had slammed shut when the tuba hit.Portia sighed. “And all of this was Aaron?” “In the space of about five minutes, yes. He seemed to be enjoying the lesson. We were talking about different styles of music in films, then I played a few stirring chords and he just flipped, screamed at me to stop and then trashed the place.” A noise like a strangled cat came from the lessons next door. Why couldn’t Aaron have smashed the violins?“And he gave no warning?”“Nothing. Usually there’s something that sends him off the rails, but I’ve no idea what happened this time.”“You know, he was already on final warning. I should expel him for this.”“Well that would make all our lives easier. He’s a good kid though. I’d miss him. Maybe there’s a reason we can come up with to give him one more chance?”“One more chance then, but then if anything else happens…”Just then, there was a knock at the music room door. Julia Price, a year seven student, was at the door. “Miss Banks, Mrs Langan asked me to find you. Aaron Gray’s blew up a thermometer in science class.”Portia sighed, turning to Martyn. “Well. I guess that’s that then.”